16 hours Ago By Taiwo Jimoh
The attempt by members of an international drug syndicate that operates between Brazil, Ethiopia and Nigeria to smuggle a total of 845 wraps of cocaine weighing 18.72 kilograms into Lagos has been thwarted and the consignments recovered by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja. The Agency’s Spokesperson, Mr.
Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday said the drug consignments worth four billion four hundred and ninety-two million eight hundred thousand naira in street value were recovered from two lavatories of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft during the post landing cleaning of the cabin of flight ET900 from Addis Ababa to Lagos on Tuesday October 29. Babafemi said the illicit drug consignments were wrapped in nine polythene bags and hidden in the waste collectors in the two rear lavatories of the aircraft, from where they were recovered after the MMIA Strategic Command of NDLEA was alerted about the strange objects. No fewer than 30 suspects have so far been grilled in connection with the seizure.
He said investigation revealed that the seized drugs were conveyed from Brazil to Ethiopia through ingestion and excreted in Addis Ababa by a set of couriers while some other traffickers picked them up and attempted to smuggle them into Nigeria through the Lagos airport before their attempt was frustrated with the cooperation of the airline’s authorities and other airport stakeholders. In the same vein, attempts by some drug trafficking syndicates to export 2.928kg cocaine, cannabis and tramadol 225mg concealed in body cream containers, and pieces of art work to Australia, United Arab Emirate and United Kingdom through some courier companies in Lagos were also blocked by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), on Monday, October28.
In the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, a suspect Mujahid Hamisu, 24, was arrested with 147,000 pills of tramadol concealed in black nylon bags containing plumbing materials along Kwali-Gwagwalada-Abuja Expressway on his way from Onitsha, Anambra State on Saturday, November 2, while another suspect Seun Abimbola, 47, was nabbed by NDLEA operatives same day with 512 grams of methamphetamine during a raid operation at Giri junction area of the FCT. In Kogi state, NDLEA officers on patrol along Kabba- Obajana high-way arrested Mercy Ameh, 28, in a commercial bus travelling from Lagos to Abuja, while a search of her luggage led to the recovery of fake Naira notes worth N4,353,200, even as another suspect Shaibu Dahiru, 27, was nabbed in a vehicle coming from Lagos to Katsina along LokojaOkene- Abuja road on Thursday, October 30, with 68 blocks of cannabis weighing 27.400kg.
.
